10. I’m not a paid advertisement for Bob Mayer, though I would consider it for his highly-intelligent-banana-stealing-Yellow Lab, Cool Gus

Anyone who knows me knows I’m an opinionated woman with strong convictions. As a full-time hockey mom and author, I can only spend my time on those people and things I deem valuable, which means I must believe 110% or you can fugget-about-it (not even if Peanut Butter Cups are involved). I’ve never been known for biting my tongue when someone asks me for my opinion, professional or otherwise. I believe the most valuable information is given from the heart and filled with the passion that fuels our profession. Bob Mayer does exactly that through his Warrior Writer Workshops.

9. Bob Mayer is a New York Times Best-Selling Author with 40 published books to his credit… and then there’s his Partner in Mayhem Cool Gus.

Who wouldn’t want to learn from someone who has been as successful as Bob in this business? Bob Mayer has hit every major best-selling list in five different genres, and he is a highly sought after speaker at conferences all over the nation. More importantly, he takes time away from his personal life and writing in order to run workshops designed to teach others how to be better writers and, with Warrior Writer, how to be successful authors.

8. He shows us the Warrior in the Writer and the Smarts in Cool Gus.

Bob Mayer knows what is required to conquer fear and succeed, and his book WHO DARES WINS delivers all it promises. He draws from his years as a Green Beret and then applies the work ethic of the elite to becoming a successful author. In Warrior Writer Bob helps writers apply this process to all aspects of their daily lives to become the best they can be personally and professionally.

Before I met Bob Mayer, I was fumbling around with no clear direction. Once I started applying the principles he teaches, I was able to clearly define my goals, which focused my energy and gave me a viable plan to go after my dreams.

7. Bob Mayer teaches writers how hone their craft. He teaches Cool Gus how to share.

Four years ago, my manuscript Dark Water was dead in the water, seriously. After countless rejections from agents and editors and even my own children, I reworked my manuscript based on Bob’s recommendations from a paid critique. This manuscript is currently under contract with The Wild Rose Press. (Dark Water will be available in October of 2009).

6. Bob Mayer helps writers out of their comfort zone and into their courage zone. He took Cool Gus from the comfort of the kayak to the confidence of whale-chasing.

My comfort zone had always been writing the BIG DARK PLOT. I tended to focus on situational ideas rather than character ideas. This approach inevitably led to a one-dimensional, and frankly depressing, story. Bob Mayer showed me that, by developing richer characters, I would finally have the missing yet essential ingredient to a great novel. Bob helped show me the “light” way of doing things by focusing on different aspects of my writing I had never examined before.

During the course of his workshop, we found that my biggest blind spot as a writer was my habit to focus on my antagonist at the expense of my protagonist. At this point, I might as well have been writing the book from the antagonist’s point-of-view. Why did I do this? We discovered that I was crafting a story off negative goals, or a negative original idea. This in turn led me down a dark path where the antagonist was in control of my writing. Bob coached me into taking a step back, and we were able to turn the idea around so my story became more positively focused on the protagonist’s goals. Before this experience, I had no idea I was so negatively focused and how that was affecting the quality of my work. By figuring this out, I have tapped into a deeper level of characterization and my writing vastly improved.

4. Bob gives writers the tools they need to change. He lets Cool Gus play with the remote.

After defining my blind spots as both a person and a professional, Bob helped me develop my own plan to create new habits of success. He showed me how the key to change is in three steps: the moment of enlightenment, then making a decision, then having sustained action. All three of these aspects are important to achieving true change, the kind of change that creates successful authors who thrive in this business.

3. Bob’s focus is circular, but I doubt Cool Gus chases his own tail.

WHO DARES WINS introduces the Circle of Success, a concept that has the power to improve all areas of one’s life. The idea is that the writer stands as the circle’s center and acts, to quote Bob “as the linchpin that connects all the tools.” What. Why. Where. Character. Change. Courage. Communicate. Command. Complete. By applying these principles of success, I have seen my own writing career blossom and continue to grow and improve week by week, month by month, novel by novel.

2. Bob Mayer’s Warrior Writer combines the artist hat and the professional hat to create a The Professional Author. Just like Gus integrates shades for Cool Gus and spectacles for Intellectual Gus.

Warrior Writer takes the traditional writing workshop to a whole new level. Not only does Bob teach writers how to “write a better book,” but he also helps them to develop an overall strategy for publishing success. Warrior Writer has helped me create a platform that is in line with my career goals, and educated me how to be a truly successful author from conception of idea, to published book, to promotional efforts.

And the # 1 reason you should take Bob Mayer’s workshop… drum roll please….

Bob Mayer is a talented writer and a gifted teacher and speaker. Anyone who has spent five minutes with him can attest to his passion for helping others in all aspects of their lives. He wants all writers to become successful authors by giving them the tools he’s learned the hard way over his 20 years in this business so our learning curve is a little shorter and career path is everything we hoped it would be.

…and his dog is the cutest damn dog you have ever seen.

I would not be where I am today if it were not for the teachings of Bob Mayer. He has a unique ability to hone in on a writer’s weaknesses as well as her strengths. Then, instead of pointing out our faults (sending us all into shock), he guides writers through the process so we can discover them for ourselves and then grow to become authors in charge of our own destiny.

BIO

Jenni received a BS degree in Business Education with a concentration in Marketing and Sales. Although Jenni has taught students from high school to college level, and even enjoyed success in corporate sales and product training, her greatest passion has always been for a good story. She has two short stories and four full-length novels published with The Wild Rose Press. She currently teaches writing courses at various conferences nationwide, and also offers instruction for Writers and Books of Rochester, NY.

Jenni takes her unique background in business and matches it to her years in theatre and brings it to her writing and teaching.

To sign up for a Warrior Writer Workshop near you, go to www.bobmayer.org Bob will be in Atlanta August 22-23. He still has room…barely. Feel free to contact Bob to come and speak for your organization. See website for details, and Happy Writing!

I appreciate the positive comments. I really do enjoy teaching, especially small workshops where there is a lot of interaction. I’ve always found the group synergy helps everyone. For example, when searching for the ‘original’ idea one-liner, we keep asking questions and talking until someone says something and you can feel the energy in the room pick up. We focus on that.
I am constantly revamping my instruction, adding new material as I learn it. Just today I’ve been going through a series of articles I’ve collected over the last couple of months, adding in the latest thoughts on innovation and the power of ‘grit’.

I took Bob Mayer’s weekend Warrior Writer class in Dallas a little more than a month ago. It was like a thunderstorm. In fact, as I write this, a thunderstorm is playing its dramatic show outside my window in the pre-dawn light, trees whipping about in apparent agony, rain lashing the windows, lightning punctuating the dim light, thunder growling like an insatiable beast. The thunderstorm that Bob unleashed inside me has been going on since the class. I’ve gone back to certain parts of his books and notes and re-read them time an again. I stopped writing directly on my work-in-progress novel, but I needed to. I needed to think. To let the storm inside me throw its energy around and rearrange my thoughts, my characters, my plot, my marketing identity, even my desire and goals for writing.

I’m not nearly far enough along to give a testimonial like Jenni’s. But I have no doubt that as my inner storm subsides (it already is), I will be a better writer. It’s already happening. I’m exploring character and POV and language in new ways in the flash scenes I write to help me think and see my WIP with more clarity (these become my weekly blog postings and I’m having great fun with them). I’ve been writing those like mad for weeks. Lately, I’ve begun to feel ready to start back once again on the big one, the WIP.

After intense storms, the world returns to some kind of equilibrium, though often with signs of dramatic creative destruction. That’s what Bob did for me. And that’s what I needed as much as the parched Texas earth needs the thunderstorm raging outside my window.

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